the British Museum was to be the collection's new home, although some newspapers and public figures still argued for the establishment of a new library to house the books in a different part of London. The museum lacked the room to house the collection, but plans for a significant neoclassical extension of the museum's buildings had already been drawn up by the architect Robert Smirke. While the government had for some time resisted the museum's requests for money for this project, the need to provide a fitting home for the library meant that it now agreed to fund the building work. Thus the arrival of the King's Library was a catalyst for the growth of the museum into the grand building we see today. With few changes to the original plans, the east wing of Smirke's extension to the museum became the library's new home. Constructed in 1823-7 and measuring 300 feet (91 metres) in length, this gallery has been called 'one of the noblest rooms in London'. The library was a major addition to the museum's book collection, adding 65,000 volumes to an existing 116,000; the museum estimated that only 21,000 of these were duplicates. Furthermore, many of the King's Library's strengths, such as geography, theology and Spanish and Italian literature, were areas which so far had been rather poorly represented among the museum's books. George IV retained 33 printed books from the library for himself. These were mostly incunabula, including a Mainz Psalter which is now in the Royal Library, Windsor, but also included a Shakespeare First Folio. George IV also kept back two manuscripts: one by Samuel Johnson, containing plans for projected books, and a copy of the Vedas in Sanskrit, made in Benares in 1776. During the 1840s approximately 13% of the books consulted in the museum were from the King's Library. This percentage declined at the museum's book collection grew in subsequent decades, but the King's Library remained well-used. From 1857, the gallery was used to display notable volumes from the whole of the museum's printed books collection. Towards the end of the First World War, an increased number of air raids led the museum to move the most valuable books out of London, many going to the National Library of Wales. This precaution was repeated just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. In September 1940 a bomb hit the museum, leaving